New Delhi: After Pakistan granted consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav for Indian officials, the India’s Deputy High Commissioner to Pakistan, Gaurav Ahluwalia, today met with Jadhav. The Ministry of External Affairs said that the Indian citizen was under extreme pressure to repeat a false narrative made by Pakistan.
The MEA spokesperson, Raveesh Kumar, said, “While we await a comprehensive report, it was clear that Shri Jadhav appeared to be under extreme pressure to parrot a false narrative to bolster Pakistan’s untenable claims. We will decide a further course of action after receiving a detailed report from our Cd’A and determining the extent of conformity to the ICJ directives.”
The MEA statement comes hours after Gaurav Ahluwalia met Jadhav at a sub jail for an hour.
Meanwhile, Indian Foreign Minister, S. Jaishankar, spoke with Kulbhushan Jadhav’s mother and gave her a brief about today’s meeting.
The MEA said that India is committed to bring back the former Navy officer to the country. This is the first time that Kulbhushan Jadhav is talking to a top India official after he was arrested in 2016 on trumped up charges of espionage.
Today’s meeting comes after the International Court of Justice ordered consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav after it found that Pakistan had violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963 on many counts.
Kulbhushan Jadhav was abducted by Pakistani security forces from Iran and charged with espionage. Jadhav was in Iran for business purposes when he was kidnapped. A military court had sentenced him to death on the false charges. Pakistan had denied any consular access to Jadhav even after India’s repeated pleas.
This forced India to approach the International Court of Justice in Hague where Indian lawyer, Harish Salve, argued that Pakistan was in violation of the Vienna Convention.
